The Spaniel Annals

working and living with performance spaniels

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I’m a retired English instructor, now devoted full-time to training, showing and enjoying my spaniels in many sports.
I’m an English college instructor by trade, a dog trainer by vocation. And lifelong baseball fan.

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    See Ma? No food!

    Gael is currently on a no-food-during-training diet, and the results have been promising and fascinating. This training “diet” will go on for another week, and while I’m not seeing the brightness I get when I train with food, I’m certainly seeing commitment to the task and willingness to keep going. We had one terrible training session at the outset where she was quite sullen and had to be corrected into working, but since them I’ve been happy with her response. Her favorite bumper is really helping…

    Gael equipment summer 2014 001

    A more ragged, dirty bumper is not in my toy bag, but this favorite sure helps keep Gael up and working. In the meantime, I’m learning a LOT about praising her for effort, inserting play for good work, and in general trying to make myself more interesting. In some ways, especially when we work on her dumbbell mouthing, she actually seems to be concentrating better on the task at hand, rather than getting agitated about when she’ll get her cookie. I begin to wonder if the food isn’t actually a distraction for her. A recent snapshot taken at class on Tuesday night shows her really pushing through her figure 8:

    20140624_183450_resized (3)

    I never went through this “diet” with the springers, but these 2 weeks are revealing a lot about how much I tend to use food as crutch, and with a dog like Gael, a lot, or at least some of that food might be unnecessary and even distracting. Things that make you go hmmm….

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    A great weekend at Puyallup (summer 2014)

    For some reason the semi-annual shows at the Puyallup fairgrounds have been very good to us in recent years. This surprises me as the building is not always considered friendly to obedience dogs; many people complain of the floor literally shaking (it’s on the second floor), and with large entries the spacing can get tight. However, my current generation of dogs has fared well here, often earning titles with good scores and placements. These June shows were particularly exciting: after a looooong dry spell, Reardon finally earned his first utility leg. Utility is considered the “graduate school” for dogs, and Reardon has struggled with working independently at the required distance away from me. (Details on this will be in a different post.) Roz earned her Rally Advanced title with placements, and Gael earned her first Beginner Novice leg on Sunday. While Gael won the class and earned a 189, and did a respectable job on the initial portion of the heeling, her figure 8 was quite out of control. After that, she keep going with very nice work for all the control exercises (a sit for exam, sit-stay and recall). The problems on the figure 8 have led us into a current no-cookies-during-training plan.

    However, I have to be very pleased with the final results of all three dogs. Here they are with their ribbons:

    Puyallup June 2014 004

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    July Freestyle

    In July the Oregon club, Dogs Gone Dancin’, hosted a freestyle competition in Kent, WA.  This was my first foray into the Novice level with Reardon, and just for fun I also entered Gael in a non-titling, demo class called Innovation, and put Rozzie into an evening match.  While Reardon didn’t pass on Saturday, we only missed qualifying by 2/10s of a point.  Sunday we improved and earned our first Novice leg in this sport where I’ve never before gone beyond the Beginner phase.  Next is the WCFO National in Portland, OR in late October.    Below are some great pictures from the show by photographer Kathy Kolatski:

    Gael danced to Bill Whelan's "Caracena," a piece from Riverdance.
    Gael danced to Bill Whelan’s “Caracena,” a piece from Riverdance.

     

    She astounded me by being quite attentive throughout her little routine.
    She astounded me by being quite attentive throughout her little routine.
    Naturally our routine had to show off Gael's natural exuberance. Any other option would have spelled disaster.
    Naturally our routine had to show off Gael’s natural exuberance. Any other option would have spelled disaster.

     

    Roz danced in the evening fun match, so no costume other than her cute collar. We're working on a routine to The Nutcracker.
    Roz danced in the evening fun match, so no costume other than her cute collar. We’re working on a routine to The Nutcracker.
    Roz doin' her weaves!
    Roz doin’ her weaves!
    Last but not least is Reardon's routine to the theme from the movie Van Helsing by Alan Silvestri.
    Last but not least is Reardon’s routine to the theme from the movie Van Helsing by Alan Silvestri.

     

    This is my favorite shot of Reardon in motion.
    This is my favorite shot of Reardon in motion.

    More freestyle updates to come after the National in October!

     

     

     

     

     

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Roz is back!

    It’s been a rough summer for Rozzie: a surgical implant in June (not my decision, but her breeder’s), absorption of the puppies by July, a pyometra scare in early August and a course of antibiotics. I scheduled a spay as soon as she recovered, just in case we had any left-over problems. So Rozzie has spent a summer highly restricted and in discomfort. Thank goodness it’s all over now and Rozzie can just be a working girl. To celebrate, I’ve been trying to get her out doing what she loves most in the early fall weather: swimming and retrieving.

    Today we were at Cherry Valley, and while the ponds were too low for any real swimming, Rozzie got to get down and dirty with her new love, a plastic orange bumper.

    DSCN0229

    Gael got into the action too:
    DSCN0228

    Things got a bit swampy at one point:

    DSCN0235

    But the run back to the car was as merry as the run out.  It does my heart good seeing Rozzie back to herself.

    DSCN0239

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Gael is a Junior Hunter!

    I’m so pleased that Gael finished her Junior Hunter title today, with great scores and 3 finds. Her pointing keeps getting more stylish, and today she waited for me to start kicking up the bird before she broke. (Junior dogs have to establish point, but they don’t need to be steady to wing and shot.) For her previous leg, she received 1 “9” (out of 10) from each judge, and the rest 8’s; this time, both judges gave her 2 9’s and 2 8’s. It’s neat to see that improvement. The AKC apparently had confidence that we would get this 4th leg, as they erroneously sent us our certificate with the 3rd one.

    Gael JH! 010

    I’m not sure how much further we’ll go on in hunt tests; there are just so many other things I want to do with her. I do know she would enjoy the retrieving of Senior Hunter. We’ll see! Now on to rally and tracking!

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    no puppies

    Last month Rozzie was bred to a field champion Melchris springer, and we’ve been waiting for today, the day of the ultrasound. She’s been off her feed a bit, a wee bit moody and lethargic, and to me just a bit full in the tummy. So we went to the vet’s quite expectantly.

    But no puppies. The vet found four little blobs that are not developed, and appear to be re-absorbing into the uterus. She suspects that Rozzie’s uterus, being that of an older bitch, has too many “cystic changes” and so was unable to bring the puppies to term.

    The heart is a strange creature, subject to erratic shifts and irrational dreams. When this adventure began, all at the behest of the breeder, I was apprehensive and reluctant, simply ready to get an obligation (a “litter back”) done and move on with our lives. But as the possibility of puppies grew, and as Rozzie showed signs, I began to resurrect an old hopeful dream about what Kani, and now Rozzie as her daughter, could bring into the springer world. Perhaps I would take a puppy from this litter. If not, Rozzie would now be “viable” and I could breed her to a sire of my choice next year. Perhaps I’d see Kani coming back to me in one of her grand-puppies.

    Those dreams really do have to end. Rozzie needs to be spayed–mother nature is making that very clear. And I now realize what those resurrected dreams are really about. I just want Kani back. I want her to come back, and it’s not going to happen. At least not in this life. But that’s all I want. And I find myself right back in the grief of two months ago.

    Rozzie summer 2013 007

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    ‘Jes being dogs

    A day at Marymoor Park, with Gael and Journey just being dogs.

    Let's go!
    Let’s go!
    The race to the ball...
    The race to the ball…
    That Gordon bitch has my ball!
    That Gordon bitch has my ball!

     

    Ah, victory!
    Ah, victory!
    Running pals
    Running pals
    Where'd she go?
    Where’d she go?
    Scanning the fields
    Scanning the fields
    One last longing look
    One last longing look

     

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Let’s go train!

    Mom! Quit your moping! Let’s go train!

     

    DSCN0084

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    Until We Meet Again

    Kani 2012

    “Kani”
    Melchris Constitutional UD SH RA
    July 21, 2003 – May 1, 2013

  • “When violence begins, training ends”
    Anonymous

    the Setter sidles in

    Gael has fit back in admirably with the springers, who are a tight little family pack (and remember we’re all stuffed into two back rooms while my house is on the market).  While some credit might go to the springers, I’d say most goes to Gael who, like my past Gordon, Vita, is showing remarkable ability to read doggie language and ease her way back into the pack.   As Vita matured, she showed amazing abilities in reading other dogs, defusing aggressive dog behavior and making fearful dogs feel at ease.  It also meant she was capable of subtle dominance moves that didn’t at all look like dominance, but in truth were, usually to claim a space or a person.

    Gael has a ways to go to reach maturity, since setters don’t really mature until they’re 4 or 5.  But I’m seeing clever little moves so far.  She’s managed to transform to grown-up-dog-sleeping-out-of-her-crate status ever since she came back.  She achieved this by quietly claiming the dog bed at about 8am that first night, and simply not moving until morning:

    house spring 13 003 (1024x768)

    The next miracle happened this morning in the bedroom.  I was working in the other room, and heard lots of bouncing and barking, which meant everyone was playing. When things got quiet, I peeked around the corner:

    Gaelonthebed 001

    This photo might not look like anything unusual, but you need to know that Reardon is Lord of the Bed, and he can be a bit of a butthead with the other dogs on the bed without his say-so.  This is the first time I’ve seen Gael share the bed with him.  I’m certain that if he turned around to look at her, she would don her invisible Gordon cloak  and pretend she simply wasn’t there.  It’s these quiet little insinuations into the adult dog privileges of the household that I’m finding so fascinating right now.  And Gordons seem to know how to do this better than any other breed.   Other breeds bulldoze in or take the submission route.  Gordons sidle in with a kind of intuitive subtlety unlike any other dogs….